Chapter 11 - TRUTH DIDN’T MAKE PETER INNOCENT
Mediation lasted forty-three minutes.
Reena arrived wearing a plain gray sweater and no makeup.
For the first time since the porch, she looked tired rather than furious.
Peter almost hated that more.
Humanity complicated anger.
Her attorney spoke first.
Reena would agree to supervised visitation.
She would not oppose temporary placement with Peter.
She would cooperate with financial accounting.
In return, Peter would agree not to characterize Mark as a manipulated parent in court filings.
Peter stared across the table.
“This is about Mark’s reputation?”
Reena finally looked at him.
“It’s about my husband.”
“My brother.”
“And you abandoned him.”
Peter’s lawyer touched his arm, but Peter did not raise his voice.
“I did.”
Reena blinked.
The answer seemed to unsettle her.
Peter continued.
“I got angry. I stopped trying hard enough. Mark was wrong about Drew, and I was wrong to walk away from him.”
Reena’s face tightened.
“But I didn’t lock children downstairs.”
“You think I wanted this?”
“I think you wanted control.”
Her chair scraped slightly when she leaned back.
For a second Peter saw fear.
Not fear of prison.
Fear of losing the version of the family in which she had been essential.
Mark had needed her.
The children had depended on her.
Ellen had defended her.
Peter had been excluded.
Every person received reality through Reena.
Without that role, what was left?
The mediation ended without agreement.
Outside, Ellen waited in Peter’s truck.
“How bad?”
“Bad.”
She nodded.
Then Peter told her something he had not said aloud before.
“I still blame Mark.”
Ellen closed her eyes.
“For believing her?”
“For not asking his own kid sooner.”
Neither of them defended him.
That night Peter moved Mark’s framed photograph from Drew’s bedroom dresser to the hallway shelf.
Not to punish Mark.
Because Drew had started turning it facedown before bed.
Peter finally understood that forcing a child to honor a dead father could become another form of pressure.
When Drew noticed the picture was gone, he asked, “Did you throw Dad away?”
“No.”
“Where is he?”
“In the hall.”
“Why?”
Peter crouched.
“Because you get to decide when you want him in your room.”
Drew stared at him for a long time.
Then he nodded.
Truth had exposed Reena.
But it had also left Peter with a harder responsibility.
May you like
He could protect Drew from Reena.
He could not tell Drew what he was supposed to feel about his father.
